Mission Bay News 18/03/2015

In this weeks edition of the Mission Bay News I talk about the history of one of Mission Bay’s most well known streets, and home to Ray White Mission Bay – Patteson Avenue.

When John Patteson arrived in Auckland during February 1861, he was consecrated first Bishop of Melanesia. It proved to be a difficult role: the islands were scattered over miles and miles of ocean and he was not always welcomed, in large part due to the fact that the the native peoples were extremely wary of “blackbirders”. A talented linguist, Patteson eventually spoke 23 of the more than 1,000 Melanesian languages. In September 1871, Patteson was killed on the island of Nukapu in the Solomon Islands. It was thought that natives killed him either in revenge for the abduction of five men by illegal blackbirders a few days before or due to mistaking him for a blackbirder also.